One Effective (But Ignored) Way to Get Clients in Transcription Business

Looking for ways to get clients in your transcription business?

This blog post reveals to you one of the best ways to get freelance clients that most transcribers usually ignore.

Finding work is one of the most challenging tasks in the freelancing industry.

Many new freelancers are excited to start their careers, but they quickly get disheartened and upset when there isn’t enough work to go around.

We’re all used to finding work on sites like Upwork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, and Fiverr, as well as transcription sites like GoTranscript, Rev, and Transcribeme, but if you’re willing to step outside of your comfort zone, you’ll find that there’s plenty of work outside of those platforms.

There’s a variety of techniques for client acquisition.

One of which is cold emailing.

Cold emailing is the process of reaching out to potential clients one by one and attempting to complete a transaction with them.

You have complete control over what you transcribe, who you transcribe for, and how much you charge.

Trending

New to Freelancing? How to Get More Jobs and Charge Higher Rates

The Advantages of Cold Emailing

• No requirement for you to pass the application exam.

• No need to wait for a transcribing company’s approval.

• The quantity of work you receive is entirely dependent on you.

• You decide how much you want to charge for the service.

• No need for you to be concerned about other transcribers stealing your client.

What should you do if you already have a list of potential customers?

After you’ve decided on your goals, it’s time to focus on your pitch.

– Learn about your prospective client.

You should not send out random emails to strangers only to reach out to them.

That might lead to a massive failure, not to mention your email ending up in the spam folder.

Collect as much information as possible about your potential clients.

Visit their website and social media sites to discover more about them.

You may also gain a feel of their personality as a result of this.

Some clientele is upbeat and cheerful, while others maintain a more business-like demeanor.

When you take note of such details, you will be able to determine the sort of email to send, as well as the appropriate tone.

Visiting their website, particularly their About Us page, can also assist you to choose who you should pitch to.

For instance, if they have a podcast, it makes more sense to contact the person in charge of that.

First and foremost, get that copy-and-paste nonsense out of your head.

It’s a big mistake to do that.

You can’t just copy and paste one email and send it to everyone.

The chances of receiving a response to such communications are limited to none.

How do you make your email stand out amid a sea of emails sent to online professionals every day, particularly those with high-ranking websites on Google?

When it comes to subject lines, there are several options like, “Hoping to help.”

Be creative so as to capture attention.

However, do not make the mistake of having a dull introduction that will cause them to press the back button.

To prevent this, name a work of your potential client that you found intriguing or thought provoking.

As a result, he or she will notice that you were really interested in their business.

Several prospects don’t have the slightest idea why having their audios/videos transcribed was crucial.

So in your email, you can talk about the benefits of that.

People must feel that you are serious about your service, and they must see this in your first email.

Use your customer’s name when addressing them.

Simply do some research to find out what their name is.

Think about how you’ll approach them.

You don’t want to irritate them in any way.

Make it a point to include a compliment in your email.

Find anything your consumer did that isn’t obvious.

Don’t tell them you just appreciate their work.

Tell them how much you appreciate their work and how much you appreciated that one audio or video on a certain topic.

The important thing is to be yourself.

Don’t act as though you’re someone you’re not.

Inform them if you have no experience and have only recently begun.

Of course, having experience increases your chances of acquiring a customer.

– Introduce your service.

If you’ve gotten your potential customer this far, here is your best chance to close the deal.

Describe the nature of your service.

Most importantly, convey the benefits of collaborating with you.

This cannot be overstated.

You must undoubtedly make them aware of the benefits of joining up for your service.

Ascertain that they are completely aware of that.

Then, you present them with a strategy on how it will benefit them.

How can you build trust when the consumer knows nothing about you other than the social media profiles you’ve hopefully provided?

How can you show the consumer that you are an excellent transcriber who can save them time and money?

This is when your blog or freelancing accounts might come in handy.

In your bio, include a link to your Upwork profile, or any other site that shows your reviews and portfolio.

Direct your clients to your Hire Me page if you have a blog, which is highly recommended, if you want to take your freelance career seriously.

It’s not enough to say you’re an excellent transcriber who will benefit their team.

Demonstrate and prove that you are.

So how can you improve your chances of success if you don’t have any prior experience?

Rarely do people want to engage inexperienced freelancers to do work for them.

Why would they pay you $1 per minute instead of a transcribing service?

You’re a novice and they’ve assembled a team of seasoned transcriptionists.

You need to make your offer appealing to them.

You want them to consider your offer and eventually hire you.

How can you make your offer appealing to them?

1. By including more to your service package.

Provide extra timestamps on the transcription, or maybe you’ll write a short blog post or a newsletter for them based on the audio you transcribed.

Anything that improves your service is a positive.

2. By offering your service at a fair price.

Give them a discount if they want to rewrite your transcription into a blog post.

However, since you’re a beginner, you can offer a free sample (5 or 10 minutes perhaps) to encourage your client to consider your service.

You do that simply because they have no idea who you are.

They aren’t aware of how good your service is, or whether you are skillful at what you do.

Whether you offer to transcribe one of their audios or videos for free to see if they like it, they are more likely to hire you than if you’re paid for it.

They’ll notice the quality of your work and see that you’re a real deal.

Once you’ve proven your skill, you can then charge for your work moving forward.

It’s easiest to get y our foot in the door by providing a free service and then charge for it after people discover how good it is.

Of course, you can’t charge too much.

If you’re new, it’s preferable to charge a bit less than other transcribing sites so that those individuals will choose you over them.

You’ll be able to charge more while keeping a greater degree of service quality once you’ve gained some experience.

With patience and consistent outreach, eventually, someone will respond.

After you’ve secured a few clients, things will become much easier.

When clients respond, you must ensure that they receive a clear description of the service.

Then do the following:

1. Explain what you want to do and how you plan to work.

Take the video and transcribe it into a blog piece, for example.

2. Provide a timetable for when they expect the job to be finished.

3. What are you going to need to get started? Ask them to provide you with a video or audio URL that they’d like transcribed.

4. Ask whether they have any specific instructions for you to follow, such as the format and document type they require for the transcribing.

5. How are they going to pay you? It could be via PayPal, bank transfer, or another way. It’s better if they have a few options.

6. Thank them for choosing your services.

You’ll most likely exchange a few emails to iron out the specifics and ensure that everything runs properly.

The majority of the prospects you email will not respond.

Some recipients may not even open the email.

But that shouldn’t make you stop. Do follow up.

Strike a balance. If you follow up too quickly, you will appear spammy. If you follow up too late, your email will not have much of an impact.

Others believe that following up after a week is the best time and the last follow-up email is another week later.

Second, remember that a follow-up email is not a repetition of the preceding email.

That would be the most direct route to the spam folder.

Be polite and inform your customer that you have provided a proposal for transcribing services.

If possible, provide the email topic and date.

In the follow-up email, request that your customer notify you if they do not require the services.

Set a reasonable timeline if they want you to email them later.

Don’t email them after 2 weeks or 4 months if they offer you an estimate like in a month.

What happens once you’ve got a client?

Once a client hires you, there’s a good possibility they’ll want to stay in contact and use you for a long time.

In other words, you’ll be collaborating with them for quite some time.

It’s ideal for you since you’ll have a dependable customer who understands exactly what they want and how they want it done.

Customers may, however, order a few transcriptions and then decide they don’t want any more.

This is a less encouraging condition for you since it signifies that something went wrong with your efforts.

Make sure to inquire about the cause for this and their suggestions for how you may improve.

There is one thing you must do regardless of the sort of client you will be dealing with.

Even if they accept your free trial but ultimately decide not to work with you, get their feedback.

Inquire as to what went wrong and why they didn’t use your service.

You’re constantly looking for ways to improve, and the simplest way to do so is to figure out what’s wrong.

If you end up working with someone for a long time, ask them to submit a little review or a testimonial to help you with your business.

Testimonials help you obtain credibility.

With testimonials, future clients are considerably more inclined to hire you.

Wrap-Up

Doing one task and dipping is not the way to obtain freelance work.

It’s all about finding clients who will work with you for a long time.

It’s always difficult to start.

You may have to work hard for a few weeks before you get your first client.

You could even wind up dealing with some folks who dropped out after the free trial period.

The important thing here is to not give up and do this consistently.

It will pay off eventually.